You're too smart

You’re too smart:

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You’re too smart.

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Heard that today from my dad.

A man I’ve looked up to my whole life.

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My role model.

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We were talking about housing.

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Owning a house for my generation.

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My take is owning a house for my generation is financially unfeasible.

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Wrote a piece about it - Don’t Buy a House

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His take is it still makes sense.

If you look at the math and make a lot of assumptions, he’s not wrong.

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But there’s a lot you have to assume in that.

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If you’re set up in a place and want to be there for a long time, buying a house makes sense in the long term.

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In the short term, unless you have rich parents who can afford a down payment, good luck.

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But it wasn’t that.

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It was this comment.

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‘When I was buying houses many years ago, I was smarter than 90% of people.

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When I look at you, you’re part of the 0.01% of people.

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You know too much.’

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Damn.

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It hit me like a ton of bricks.

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Am I too smart for my own good?

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Probably.

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It’s held me back in lots of arenas.

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And pushed me forward in others.

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Work?

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No problem.

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Friendships?

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Got em.

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Relationships?

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Tough.

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Am I too smart for my own good?

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Maybe.

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Jordan Peterson talked about this on a podcast with Chris Williamson.

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Being too smart is lonely.

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‘I’ve never met an intelligent person who wasn’t troubled.’

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Almost a curse.

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Elon’s mentioned it a few times.

He’s not a happy man.

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His brain is constantly going.

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That’s sometimes what my brain feels like.

Constantly thinking about situations that don’t exist.

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Putting together ideas from different disciplines to make sense of the world in ways no one else sees.

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Is it a blessing?

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Or a curse?

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I don’t know.

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Sometimes I wish I didn’t know enough.

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I remember a friend of mine telling me this story.

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He’s getting married to a girl from Louisiana.

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Told me years ago about an experience he had sitting at a local bar in the American south.

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A bar in the middle of nowhere America.

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These people there are happy.

They don’t care about anything but the 10-mile radius around them.

They watch Fox News all day.

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They have a family.

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They have friends.

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They have a farm.

They have purpose.

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Are they racist?

Probably.

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Are they bigotted?

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Probably.

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Are they unaware?

For sure.

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But does it matter if they’re happy?

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I don’t know.

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Sometimes it feels like a curse.

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I was raised in a international household.

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I traveled the world since I was a kid.

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I visited 50 countries by the time I was 21.

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I didn’t earn any of that.

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Yet I ended up in that situation.

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I was also lucky to have educated immigrant parents who prioritized hard work.

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I always felt like I had to do more.

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Learn more.

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See more.

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Experience more.

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But for what?

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To become more knowledgable.

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To learn more.

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To become smarter.

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Is it worth it?

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I don’t know.

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Sometimes I wish I didn’t know enough.

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But I’m here now.

There’s no going back.

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There’s no turning back on my potential.

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Now that I know what I’m capable of, why should I stop?

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Almost 1000 blog posts in 3.5 years while working full-time.

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No one can touch me on that.

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So I can’t stop.

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I can’t stop what I’m doing.

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I can’t stop working.

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I can’t stop learning.

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I can’t stop being me.

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Whether that’s a blessing or a curse, who cares.

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All I know is I’m happy and enjoying my life.

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Thank god I’m too smart.

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